Barcelona Atletic suffer heartbreaking defeat to Cordoba in promotion play-off final

Barcelona Atletic suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Cordoba in the second leg of their promotion play-off final, going down 2-1 and missing out on a place in the Second Division for next season.

Marc Casado captained the side, fresh from signing a new contract, and featured in an XI that included Hector Fort, Mikayil Faye, Pau Victor, Unai Hernandez, Marc Bernal and Marc Guiu.

Barca Atletic needed a late equaliser in the first leg but almost scored right at the start of the match when Moha Moukhliss had an effort saved by the goalkeeper.

Faye also saw an effort saved before Marc Bernal went close with a shot that whistled across goal and wide of the post.

Yet Barca were celebrating on 14 minutes when Fort opened the scoring in some style. The right-back came marauding forward and eventually left fly with a powerful effort that flew across goal and into the back of the net.

It was a wonderful effort by Fort but Cordoba managed to level just after the half-hour mark through Alberto Toril. A cross into the area saw Toril get between Pelayo Fernandez and Faye to head home the equaliser and make it 2-2 on aggregate.

The goal had a big impact on the game with Cordoba looking the stronger team in the second half. Indeed you sensed a goal was coming and it duly arrived on 55 minutes after a horrible moment from goalkeeper Marc Vidal.

Barca’s stopper tried to play the ball out but his pass was read and intercepted, with the ball falling to Toril to grab his second of the match and put Cordoba in front.

Barca Atletic struggled to get back into the game after going a goal down and found it tough going against a physical Cordoba side who were happy to try and run the clock down too.

In the end the hosts had enough to see out the win to secure promotion, while Barcelona Atletic miss out in agonising fashion once again despite a really brilliant effort this season.